Black Friday

Wow! What an experience! I decided I would go to Kohl's and hit Target in the weeeeee morning hours. Kohl's, as you all know, opened at 4 am. I was seriously under the impression that if I got to Kohl's by 4:30 I would out of the store by 6 am, on time to hit Target right when they opened (my inexperience on Black Friday is coming through). Was I wrong!!!!

I got to Kohl's at 4:20 am and by the time I got there, the parking lot was full and there were already people LEAVING the store with cart after cart after cart full of stuff. I couldn't believe it. I went back to the children's section, as that was my focus for going in the first place. On my way back to the children's section the line to pay was already starting to snake around the store. I grabbed a few things, looked around, grabbed a few more things, and then made my way for the line. I saw the line on the women's side of the store and thought I would be smart and go to the men's side. That line was e-freakin'-normous! I was screwed either way. So, I planted myself in line on the men's side to wait.

When I mentioned to Adam that I was going to go out on Black Friday, he said something like "Okay, but you're going to have to wait in line for like 30 minutes and you're going to hate it." To which I replied, "I know I'll have to wait in line and I can do that, provided I have no kids." Side note: Adam doubted that I would even get out of bed for Black Friday. HA!

So, I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. To be exact, I waited in line to pay at Kohl's for 2 HOURS!!!!!! I was astounded. I got in line at approximate 4:55 am and walked out of the store at 7 am! I was seriously behind schedule at this point.

Next stop, Target. I had severe reservations about going to Target if Kohl's was as bad as it was. But, I pushed on. Target, as it turned out, was one of the best experiences on that day! I grabbed the main gift for Owen, a few more toys and goodies for Cari and Owen, paid (walked right up to the register as the cashier's were standing in front of their lane WAITING for people to ring up), got my rain check and out to the car in 45 minutes. As miserable as Kohl's was, that was how wonderful Target was. Back on schedule!

I tried to hit one more place, Circuit City, before going home. When I pulled up and parked at Circuit City, there was a line to GET IN the store. The reason being was the fire code only allowed 600 people in the store at any one time. So, as 2 or 3 came out, 2 or 3 went in. I was fortunate in that there were a couple of employees outside waiting to load a TV into the car of a customer. I asked if indeed that was the line to get in and they confirmed that it was. I then proceeded to ask if they had any of the items left I was looking or if they were gone. The employee went into the store to check, came back out and told me that they didn't. On my way home.

I was home by 8:30 with what I considered to be a very successful shopping trip on Black Friday. I have to pick up just a couple more things and my Christmas shopping is done! Was it crazy, probably even a little insane? Yes. Was it worth it in order to be done Christmas shopping BEFORE December 1st? Yesssireeeee!

I will be going out on Black Friday next year. I'll do things differently, but I will definitely go out again.